“Most people are about as aware of their surroundings as a sea cucumber.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“How awful a knowledge of the truth can be.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“There was a pause while Pendergast considered this. “I prefer hypocrisy to poverty.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“My idle curiosity might lead to something more official, if the lieutenant feels his work is being hindered by an officious, small-minded, self-important bureaucrat. Not you, of course. I speak in general terms only.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“What was that line of Sophocles from Oedipus Rex? “How awful a knowledge of the truth can be.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“sometimes not knowing can be a lot worse than knowing—even if knowing proves to be very painful.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“specimens, wait until they’ve been examined, then put them back.” “Bone librarian—a most apt description. How many visiting scientists”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“You just put your boot so far up his ass, he’ll have to eat his dinner with a shoehorn.” “I can always count on you for a suitable bon mot.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“There was a pause while Pendergast considered this. “I prefer hypocrisy to poverty.” “Come to think of it, there is a rationale. Leng didn’t make his money from killing. He made it from speculating in railroads, oil, and precious metals.” Pendergast raised his eyebrows. “I did not know that.” “There is much you still don’t know about him.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“To one side, a vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, polished to a gem-like brilliance, sat on a flatbed trailer, ready to be taken to its new owner. Constance looked from Pendergast to the Rolls and back again. “I really don’t need two, you know,” he said.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“Mrs. Trask turned to him. “When Mr. Pendergast asks for something, we do not say no.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“I like your custom 1911,” the man said, glancing at Pendergast’s weapon. “Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special? Nice-looking piece.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“Hezekiah Pendergast,” Constance continued, “was the great-great-grandfather of Aloysius—and a first-rate mountebank. He began his career as a snake-oil salesman for traveling medicine shows and, over time, devised his own ‘medicine’: Hezekiah’s Compound Elixir and Glandular Restorative.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“What you’re suggesting is that Hezekiah’s elixir caused epigenetic changes. Such changes can and do get passed down the generations. Environmental poisons are the leading cause of epigenetic changes.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“words, it gave a rather convincing impression of trying to elude pursuit.” The dry, faintly ironic delivery”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth
“Old Central School still stood upright, holding its secrets and silences firmly within. Eighty-four years of chalkdust floated in the rare shafts of sunlight inside while the memories of more than eight decades of varnishings rose from the dark stairs and floors to tinge the trapped air with the mahogany scent of coffins. The walls of Old Central were so thick that they seemed to absorb sounds while the tall windows, their glass warped and distorted by age and gravity, tinted the air with a sepia tiredness. Time moved more slowly in Old Central, if at all. Footsteps echoed along corridors and up stairwells, but the sound seemed muted and out of synch with any motion amidst the shadows. The cornerstone of Old Central had been laid in 1876, the year that General Custer and his men had been slaughtered near the Little Bighorn River far to the west, the year that the first telephone had been exhibited at the nation’s Centennial in Philadelphia far to the east. Old Central School was erected in Illinois, midway between the two events but far from any flow of history.”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Summer of Night
“Wake up! If you knew for certain that you had a terminal illness - if you had precious little time left to make use of your life and consider who you are, you'd not waste time on self-indulgence or fear, lethargy or ambition. Be happy now, without reason - or you never will be at all.”
― Dan Millman, quote from Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives
“I've learned that if you wait long enough, you might get a second chance at something you gave up on.”
― Wendy Mass, quote from 13 Gifts
“people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
“Again and again we went there together – tumbling over the raw edge, touching the live wire, collapsing, exploding, dissolving like dead stars.”
― M. Pierce, quote from Night Owl
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.